Lobbyist Lazio got millions

JIMMY VIELKIND Capitol bureau

Published 12:00 am, Sunday, February 21, 2010

ALBANY -- During his eight-year hiatus from public life, Rick Lazio earned millions of dollars from one of Wall Street's biggest banks, in part for lobbying against restrictions on credit card and student lending practices.

Lazio, a former Long Island congressman and the presumptive Republican candidate for governor, oversaw lobbying for J.P. Morgan Chase as an executive vice president between 2004 and 2008. A Times Union review of public records found he worked for the firm to "educate (congressional) members and staff" about several bills pushed by consumer advocates but opposed by the financial giant.

In a recent interview with the Times Union, Lazio said he was proud of his work for J.P. Morgan.

"There is always tension between businesses that are set up to make a profit and advocacy groups that see their job very differently, obviously," Lazio said. "They're not in the business to extend credit or price risk or any of these other things. J.P. Morgan is a for-profit company. ... It expects to have good, legitimate business practices, but also to make money."

Lazio said his role at J.P. Morgan "was to be somebody on the inside and outside that would explain these policies and practices to people, and protect them. ... And when I'm governor that will be my job, too: to advocate for and protect the people of New York."

Lazio took a partial leave from J.P. Morgan in May 2009 and left the firm in September when he formally declared his candidacy for governor, said Barney Keller, a Lazio spokesman.

The Times Union requested information on Lazio's compensation during his time at J.P. Morgan, which during the interview the candidate expressed a willingness to provide. (Lazio would be required to disclose his 2009 income and stock holdings within a week of receiving the Republican nomination.)

A week after the Times Union request, Keller said Lazio was paid a $325,000 base salary and $1.3 million bonus for his work in 2008, as well as $260,000 in salary and a $300,000 bonus -- received this year -- for his work in 2009. Salary information from the previous years was not immediately available, Keller said.

Records show J.P. Morgan spent $5.44 million lobbying in Washington during 2007 and $1.43 million in the first three months of 2008, after which Lazio left its government relations arm for another division.

Congress had begun to show interest in bank regulation over that period as the economic boom -- fueled by cheap money and what many critics describe as reckless lending practices -- began to slow. The eventual downturn caused institutions to curtail lending and, after two marquee Wall Street banks collapsed, required intervention by the federal government.

J.P. Morgan's lobbying efforts were broad, and included a push to raise the quota on visas for foreign workers and a crackdown on practices that enable the financing of terrorists. But according to Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America, it also fought attempts to restrict credit card practices "designed to trip up consumers and trap them in debt."

Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union supported a bill introduced by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., that would have limited credit card interest and penalties. J.P. Morgan and others lobbied against the bill, which never became law.

"We've struggled against enormous financial-industry pressure to bring these abusive practices under control," said Chuck Bell, programs director for Consumers Union. He said the banks "have strongly opposed fair rules to eliminate tricks and traps in credit cards, and American consumers have suffered as a result."

Records list Lazio as a member of the lobbying team that worked against Levin's bill, though Lazio couldn't remember specifically meeting with members about it.

"If people presented a credit risk, J.P. Morgan's view was that ... the bank ought to be able to price for the risk -- so the people who had less risk could get the benefit of stronger credit," Lazio said.

Student lending was another area in which Lazio was active lobbying. A 2007 investigation by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- now a potential 2010 gubernatorial challenger -- found conflicts of interest among student loan officers at many colleges, which would recommend "preferred lenders" to students for arbitrary reasons. The attorney general's investigation, which was picked up in Congress by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., found banks were wooing the loan officers and, in some cases, offering a slice of their profits. J.P. Morgan was found to have spent over $70,000 for a 2005 cruise around New York harbor for more than 200 college financial aid officers.

Lazio said he knew nothing about the cruise. Amid pressure from Cuomo, J.P. Morgan signed on to a voluntary code of conduct in 2007 and supported Miller's bill to make it federal law.

But the company lobbied against other legislation pushed by Miller in the wake of the scandal that would have shifted $20 billion of subsidies from private student lending to direct federal lending.

"The 2007 student loan scandals finally exposed the millions of dollars lenders were spending to violate the law," Miller said. "It was very clear that the taxpayer subsidies these lenders were receiving were not only excessive, but were essentially financing bad lender behavior."

J.P. Morgan was on the losing end of that equation.

"The competition was good," said Lazio, who said he made the argument that "students and schools wanted to have the private sector involved, and that there needed to be room for direct lending, where the federal government made the direct loans to students, and guaranteed loans, where the private sector was making the loans."

At a time when some Americans have sour feelings about large financial institutions, Lazio's Wall Street resume could be a political liability.

"It depends on how the individual involved portrays his job history," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant. "If he lobbied against consumer protection issues, if he lobbied to get more money out of the pockets of consumers, then it will be a real problem and will be used against him."

Sheinkopf sketched out a possible line of attack: "This is Reckless Rick. He didn't even have enough brains to not try to run for office after he took the bonus."

Lazio said he was confident voters would see through the fog.

"There's absolutely going to be an effort -- particularly if it's Andrew Cuomo (as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee) -- to paint me as somebody from the financial sector," he said. "But I have a lot of confidence in people. I think they can distinguish and understand roles and I think they understand that we're not better off as a state if we destroy the financial sector.

"Somebody who has got an understanding of that sector is in the best place to make that a reality."

Jimmy Vielkind can be reached at 454-5081 or jvielkind@timesunion.com.

Bills Lazio Lobbied Against

S-1395 -- Stop Unfair Credit Card Practices To prohibit interest on debt paid on time and in full and limit "penalty rate" increases to seven percentage points.

Died in committee.

HR-946 -- Overdraft Protection Fair Practices Act To prevent banks from enrolling people in overdraft plans without their consent.

Died in committee.

HR-3915 -- Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act To prohibit mortgage lenders from steering borrowers to loans that they lacked a "reasonable ability" to repay.

Passed House, died in Senate.

Bills Lazio Lobbied For

HR-890 -- Student Loan Sunshine Act

To prohibit college loan officers from taking gifts or perks from lending institutions.